SRIMATEH RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA --------------- In ramanuja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Ramanujam Varada Srinivasa Thatta" <acharyatvsr@xxxx> wrote: > The name "Ayya" itself should have been derived from ARYA in Sanskrit to > address an exalted person (not to be confused with word Aryas and Dravidas > as used by Christian and Marxist historians to divide and rule). > Even the word "Ayyar" or "Iyer", which is the title used by Tamil speaking > Vaideekas, should be a distorted form of "Aryar". > I personally feel that the titles have more mundane origins rather than some > deep philosophical origins. > Regards, > Ramanujam. > ------------------------------------- Some more inputs from my little understanding of Tamil. There is a sutra for Aryar in Tamil "aaryar mlehchar nallOr enbathu idai-ch-cholaavaam/ aariyE kadhavu chozhan azhagodu mEnmaikkum pEr// By this it is stated that Aryar are mlechchar, foreigners. Also means good people. This is a clear indication to Aryar being different from Tamil people. But the term has been used with 'aan' idai-ch-chol (middle term)like aaryaan to denote people who are good natured. That is in writing, it is not 'aaryanai' or 'aaryanukku. It is 'aaryAnai' or aaryAnukku'. But this word has not been used anywhere to denote Brahmins or vaidiks or learned persons. It is only to denote people who did not belong to the Tamil country. This shows that they have referred to only the aryans in the north of Vindhyas. But there is a root word 'aari' in Tamil, which is the other name for Chozha king and to any one who was great. Here also there has never been any specific refernce to Brahmins. In contrast,Aiyar has 'ai' root denoting chief or respectable person (I have covered this in my previous mail on this topic)which when connected with 'an' or 'ar' vighuthi to denote respect to the person became aiyan or aiyar(like ai+an= aiyan. ai+ ar= aiyar) Aiyan was originally (in olden texts)used to denote Lord Iyappan, while resepctable persons were addressed to as 'ai' only. In course of time, ai+ an = aiyan came into usage (poetry, prose and colloquial) and used to denote anyone who was respectable and deserved to be worshipped. That is how this word came to mean god as well as learned Brahmins. Aiyan was used as aiya and aiyanE in address in II person. As you said, the term had been of mundane relevance and not of philosophical, which was only later attributed (the 5 attributes). This is proved by the 'punarchi' vidhi of Tamil grammar which has rules for how words are to be joined. For numbers like 1, 2, 3 etc, the rules are different. For instance if the term Iyengar were to have originated from aindhu (no 5), it would have been ainkaar not iyENgar, for the word aindhu becomes ain as in ainthiNAi (aindhi + thiNAi), ainkurunooru (aindhu + kurumai + nooru), aimpaal (aindhu + paal), aimpori (aindhu + pori) etc. But that the word has 'iyan' shows that the derivative is not from aindhu (no 5), but from iyan. If we were to say that it was aindhu + kaaryam or aindhu + angam, then by grammar rule (which decides the way that such combinations occur)it will be aingaaryam and aindhangam. Clearly, no 5 can not have become the root of Iyengar. The 'an' vighuthi only makes the difference.If it still be assumed that no 5 had been the basis, then the other questions arise as to who coined this term and when - which need to be answered. Regards, jayasree saranathan ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/.itolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> azhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyAr thiruvadigalE saranam Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ramanuja/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: ramanuja-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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